A QUESTION mark was hanging over the future of more than 5,000 jobs in the region last night as mobile phone operator Orange admitted it was carrying out trials with communications centres in India.

Orange, which employs the lion's share of its UK workforce at three North-East sites - in Darlington, Peterlee and North Tyneside - said it was working with two companies in India to test service quality there.

Although the company said it had not decided if it will move any jobs offshore, unions said the move was likely to pave the way for jobs being lost from the UK.

Reports yesterday suggested that Orange was planning to send an initial 1,500 jobs to Asia.

The company said there would be no redundancies but due to a high staff turnover, it is believed it could operate a non-replacement policy rather than issuing redundancy notices.

The Orange spokeswoman said: "The trial is still under way, with just over 140 call centre operatives working on the Orange account.

"A second trial, with a company called Vertex, is also beginning in February with 75 operatives working on the Orange account.

"During these trials, the quality of service we can provide from India will be measured using the same robust call quality monitoring that we use in the UK.

"A final figure regarding the number of roles Orange intends to outsource will not be decided upon until these trials are complete.

"The steps we are currently taking will not lead to UK site closures or redundancies."

But Davey Hall, regional secretary for trade union Amicus, said: "I do think that these trials are paving the way for a final exodus from the UK.

"If this trend continues unchecked, then our communities are going to be left high and dry. You can't simply take jobs out of the economy, with all the skills and brains that involves, and pretend it won't make a difference. You have to put something back in."

Ciaran Naidoo, an off-shoring expert from Amicus, said most companies that carried out trials in India went ahead with off-shoring.

He said: "I can't speak for Orange, but my experience in the past has been that these companies do go ahead with off-shoring once trials are complete."